A Necessary Review

( photo: http://www.dusa.dundee.ac.uk/udasa/presidential_seal.gif )



OK, let’s review what we learned last time. Today’s subject … as usual, is politics. And after our last two abysmal performances as an electoral class, CLEARLY some homework is in order.

We’re about to embark on another campaign season. I know, I know … it already feels like this one has been going on forever, and the election is STILL almost two years away, but based on our recent history, apparently somebody needs to start banging the gong early to get our test scores up.

This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. I’m already intentionally on record as hating both political parties, and supporting Barack Obama this campaign season. This is about America, so please remove your partisan hats for the rest of the lecture.

I COULDN’T CARE LESS WHO YOU VOTE FOR.

I know who I’m going to vote for as of this moment, and I tell you here and now that it could change any number of times between now and when I enter the voting booth at the elementary school up the street next November to play my little computer game.

Those things said, I am strongly FOR the America I’ve always read about and still believe might exist if we quit fucking up this particular test. I volunteered to serve in the military because I was an idealist, among other things, and believed then, as I do now, that the concept of America is worth defending.

But that defense doesn’t ONLY happen by picking up a rifle, aiming it, and putting a bullet center mass in some poor schmuck who was unlucky enough to meet us on the battlefield, in defense of some OTHER idea of what’s right and what’s wrong.

Sometimes, it happens by picking up a pen, or opening up a word processor, and saying some shit that needs to be said. So here we go.

We, all of us, the masses, HAVE to believe what we see this campaign cycle.

Unfortunately, the job of President doesn’t get advertised in the newspaper classifieds. There’s no formal list of requirements and qualifications. We don’t get to individually interview the prospects, there’s not much sensible recruiting happening, and we don’t have the luxury of leaving the position open until the ideal Joe comes along.

What we have is a grueling, and unfair process that lasts a looooong time to give us a chance to see how a candidate deals with adversity.

But that process actually works. For as long as I have been watching politics, which is about 25 years now, thanks to Danny B, we have ALWAYS gotten exactly what we thought we were getting.

How a man or woman deals with that process has ALWAYS given us enough information to know how they will deal with the job. The process is grueling and unfair because the JOB is grueling and unfair.

But, to its credit, the process has always given us enough information about the people in contention, for us to KNOW what we’re getting for our lever-pull.

We’re knowingly elected adulters, morons, liars, cheaters, and the corrupt. And never, not ONCE, can we honestly say we didn’t know what we were getting.

So here’s what we should be looking for this time.

1. Integrity. We’ve more than filled our quota of lies from the Oval Office. It’s time for a man or woman who does the right thing when nobody’s looking, and will be honest about what they’ve done when the situation starts to unravel. Nobody expects a full-term to pass without any mistakes being made. We are a forgiving people, but enough of the lies.

2. Moral Standing. Character matters, and we can afford to count it in the considerations. Webster brought a word to our language specifically for this sentence. UNIMPEACHABLE. We require that word to apply to your word, your honor, and your character. If you have a habit of deferring to either your genitals or your personal pocketbook when its time to make a decision that will affect a large group of people, you’re not right for the job.

3. Intellect. I’m not sold on education as the highest measure of intellect, particularly since there has been at least one idiot in every class I’ve ever taken, and that idiot usually got a decent grade, BUT … if you don’t have a working knowledge of how the world works, AND who works it, you’re not right for the job.

4. Compassion. The candidate is running for controlling interest behind the wheel of a nation of PEOPLE. If you don’t care about people, even the least of them, you’re not right for the job.

5. Balance. In addition to those people, we are a nation of Corporations. Those entities are the method we’ve chosen to provide for ourselves. We expect you to create an EXCELLENT climate for them to succeed. But never forget WHY the corporation must succeed, it is the means to an end, namely provision for “we the people.” ALL OF US. We are both a spritual and religious nation. But we serve a wide variety of higher powers, and for the most part, we have good hearts. We need you to keep it safe for ALL of us, whether we’ve chosen to believe in Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, Mother Earth, the Almighty Dollar, the Virgin Mary, Buddha, Hare Crishna, Lucifer, all or none of the above. Our nation is not just our religion, or our military, our companies, our disagreements, or our money. Our nation is all of these things. If you can’t hear the words that are coming out of my mouth because you don’t agree with me, you’re not right for the job.

6. Competence. We’ve lost thousands of citizens of late, due to simple-ass incompetence. We’ll work with you, we’ll support you, we’ll fund you, we’ll cheer for you, we’ll pray for you, we’ll defend you, we’ll fight for you, we’ll die for you, we’ll kill for you. Make us regret it, and we’ll turn on you. If you’re not capable of actually doing the work that’s required to earn that sort of love, you’re not right for the job.

7. COURAGE. We’re tired of people whose courage only applies to the opinion they already had. We’re looking for someone who has not only the courage of his or her OWN convictions, we’re interested in a leader who has the courage of OUR convictions. Because polls be damned, there ARE things we believe in. And if you’re not courageous enough to meet us to talk, and then act on what we believe, you’re not right for the job.

Being the President IS NOT about that moment standing in one of America's great arenas with the red, white, and blue confetti falling from the rafters. It's about being the people's gladiator in the arenas of policy, and international diplomacy, and during national disasters, and moments of sorrow.

This isn’t a “pick three” list. We need ALL of these things, and a few more. As this campaign season kicks off, WATCH these candidates. BELIEVE what you see. As the ineffably wise De La Soul have told us, “Stakes is high.”

Peace,
--Stew.

Extra Credit: What would you add to the list?

The People Are Coming

photo: (http://www.americanidol.com/contestants/season6/sanjaya_malakar/)


I truly believe that more people in America wonder why Sanjaya is still on American Idol, than worry about post-war health care at Walter Reed Army hospital. I’m ok with that, because life is an important thing to be observed, and in our democracy you’re allowed to pursue just about anything you suspect might make you happy—even a nationwide karaoke/beauty contest.

There’s been a lot written about how a perfectly good show is being ruined by miscreants, who’ve apparently decided in places like http://www.votefortheworst.com and http://www.howardstern.com that a vote for Sanjaya is a funny thing to do, as it capitalizes on the idea of “voting” as a method of screwing up a process.

I’m a huge fan of AI. I’ve been watching since season one with Tamyra Gray, Christina Christian (my all-time favorite crush), and Justin Guarini got broke off by young, big-bootied Texan Kelly Clarkson. I was watching the night Fantasia knelt and belted out “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess, in what I still consider the best AI performance of all time. And I was as shocked Chris appeared to be, the night the Daughtry machine stopped revolving.

I very rarely vote on contestants, although I have called twice to keep on performers that I thought deserved to move past a single bad performance. I liked Clay better than Reuben in their final showdown, even though I thought Frenchie would’ve been better than either of them, had she not had the misfortunate combination of being a big woman, AND not being opposed to participating in a bit of soft porn (even though the porn thing didn’t seem to hurt Antonella at all).

But the Sanjaya thing, in that way that some court cases or phrases in some political speeches catch my interest, intrigues me. In a lot of ways it’s a watershed moment, like Barack raising $25,000,000 in three months. Specifically, it’s the SAME moment, viewed from opposite sides of a tunnel.

(For those of you who have no idea who Sanjaya is, he’s a young man from Washington state who was just talented and beautiful enough to get through the fairly rigorous American Idol elimination process before anyone discovered that he wasn’t a ‘great’ singer. Now that he’s on the actual show, he has ‘somehow’ managed to not just avoid elimination, but actually garner a LOT of votes. His obvious lack of head-to-head singing ability has turned this season into a bit of a joke, to the purists. Now you’re caught up.)

I’m starting to realize that I watch my America through different spectacles than a lot of other people. And those spectacles suggest to me, that THIS is the evidence of the REAL birth of the digital age.

An age isn’t born when a technology is invented. It ACTUALLY comes into existence when the masses:
a) get access
b) learn to use the new capability.

Every new age is a puzzle, with the pieces being created as the assembly is happening. When the puzzle is complete, there is a new cycle to how life is lived.

The invention of the car meant nothing until there were roads that went everywhere a driver might want to go, gas stations to make the trip possible, and assembly lines to make the new machine affordable to every driver who wanted one. Once all those pieces were in place, the age of the automobile exploded. Today, everybody has a car, or at least enough access to get behind a steering wheel when the need arises.

The dot-com boom of the early 90s was supposed to signal the birth of a new era. New generations of billionaires were birthed in the creation of cool computer ideas, while investing in those creations destroyed part of an old generation of millionaires.

Nobody ever talks about the fact that the entire dot-com bubble burst before anyone even HAD high-speed internet, which in many ways is integral to the online system being useful in any tangible way.

The technology had been invented, but very few people had either the access, or the know-how to make it part of their lives.

News still came from the big five networks, and three publishing companies. Music came on compact discs and from the radio, and HBO was arguably the only real edge in mass entertainment in the 90s.

But in the interim, the “masses” have become increasingly comfortable with the new technology at our disposal. The internet started to become a real alternate universe of information.

Online shopping took over mall revenues at Christmastime, and people got used to providing that sacred collection of digits … the credit card number … to an anonymous screen. The definition of privacy changed, as the young started to live two simultaneous lives; one in person, the other online—complete with diaries, friends, and photos just risqué enough to keep them from getting their first high-profile job.

The ipod was born, the blog and podcast became Webster words, and today virtually anyone can create and broadcast their ramblings on every topic under the sun – and we can all participate. The telephone went cellular, then replaced the camcorder as the most convenient way to record our lives for posterity. Combined with youtube compression/sharing technology the video cell-phone has placed very real electronic newsgathering possible for absolutely anyone.

The digital universe is slowly strangling ALL of the old communication norms; radio, the old music distribution and sales models, network news, and the morning/evening editions of the newspaper.

And Howard Dean appeared from nowhere to make a credible run for President by raising money *gasp … on the internet.

Like every other new life cycle, the cyberworld is BOUND to eventually make its presence known in our political processes. There was time before television, and candidates had to raise money then, too. But that age is virtually antediluvian to us today, because a candidate’s money now goes to buying advertising time.

But people, at least American people, don’t just start fucking with the electoral system on a whim. We practice first.

Even after the 1960 election fiasco, and the 2000 election fiasco, we’ll test the new system with a toe first.

Which brings us back to a pretty little boy who’s in over his head on a television show that 30,000,000 Americans watch every week. Sanjaya’s got spunk, and even though I hope he doesn’t win, he’s a much more important cultural and political figure than most of us are going to realize immediately.

Sanjaya is the first real test BY THE PEOPLE of our ability to genuinely affect an honest voting system.

For the record, I’ve said privately for years that the smartest way to vote would be a national election using ATM cards and the existent financial network infrastructure. But that’s a different discussion for a different day. Today, hear this …

The people are coming.

Peace,
--Stew.